Seventy years after Allied troops stormed the beaches at Normandy, President Barack Obama returned to the hallowed battleground today to remember the soldiers who fought on its shores - and to give an emotional tribute to his own grandfather.

On Friday morning, the president spoke at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial,
where nearly 10,000 white marble tombstones sit on a bluff overlooking
the site of the June 6, 1944, battle's most violent fighting at Omaha
Beach.

'We are on this Earth for only a moment in time, and fewer of us have parents and grandparents to tell us
about what the veterans of D-Day did here 70 years ago,' Obama told the crowd comprised of veterans and officials, including French President Francois Hollande. 'So we have to tell their stories for them.'

Straying from his prepared remarks, the president paid tribute to his own grandfather, whose unit was deployed to France six weeks after D-Day to support the air force. Stanley Armour Dunham raised Obama in Hawaii and passed away in 1992, aged 73.

'As I was landing on Marine One, I told my staff, "I don't think there's a time where I miss my grandfather more, where I'd be more happy to have him here than this day', he said.

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Obama and Hollande look out over Omaha Beach as they participate in the 70th French-American Commemoration D-Day Ceremony

Moving: Obama described D-Day's violent scene in vivid terms, recalling that 'by daybreak, blood soaked the water' and 'thousands of rounds bit into flesh and sand'

President Barack Obama acknowledges veterans as he speaks at Normandy American Cemetery

Overwhelmed: Obama, who paid tribute to his own soldier grandfather in his speech, puts his hand to his face in the ceremony

Missed: Obama paid tribute to his grandfather, Stanley Armour Dunham, who supported the air force after D-Day. They are pictured together right in an undated photo

Obama and Hollande place a wreath at the Normandy American Cemetery at Omaha Beach

Obama pictured making his speech at the Normandy American Cemetery as veterans look on

U.S. President Barack Obama, centre and French President Francois Hollande stand, during the playing of the Star Spangled Banner, at Normandy American Cemetery at Omaha Beach as he participates in the 70th anniversary of D-Day in Colleville sur Mer

Fornation: President Obama and President Hollande look up as three fighter jets speed over the American cemetery in Normandy where 9,5000 US troops are buried

He described D-Day's violent scene in
vivid terms, recalling that 'by daybreak, blood soaked the water' and
'thousands of rounds bit into flesh and sand.'

'More than 15,000 soldiers set off
towards this tiny sliver of sand on which not just the direction of the
war hung, rather the course of human history,' Obama said. 'We come to remember why
America and our allies gave so much for the survival of liberty at its
moment of maximum peril. And we come to tell the story of
the men and women who did it, so that it remains seared into the memory
of the future world.

‘Today, as we carry on the struggle
for liberty and universal human rights, let us draw strength from a
moment when free nations beat back the forces of oppression and gave new
hope to the world.’

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Obama
joined other world leaders and dignitaries including Queen Elizabeth II
to honor the
more than 150,000 American, British, Canadian and other Allied troops
who risked and gave their lives to defeat Adolf Hitler's Third
Reich.

'What more powerful manifestation of
America's commitment to human freedom than the sight of wave after wave
after wave of young men boarding those boats to liberate people they had
never met?' Obama said. 'We say it now as if it couldn't be any other
way. But in the annals of history, the world had never seen anything
like it.'

The anniversary
commemoration was a gathering point for world figures in the midst of a
current geopolitical crisis, with Russian President Vladimir Putin
attending events along with leaders who are standing against his
aggressive moves into Ukraine.

Gathering: State leaders gather for lunch on Friday at Chateau De Benouville on Friday. Obama and Putin, who have not yet met on the trip, are both in attendance

Together: Only Queen Elizabeth, French President Francois Hollande and Queen Margrethe of Denmark separated Obama and Putin in the group photo

Standing out: Red light reflected from the carpet illuminates the Russian president as he passes Obama and other world leaders on Friday

Helping hand: Putin stands to the side as Obama and New Zealand's Governor-General Jerry Mateparae guide Queen Elizabeth to her position for the group photo

Catching up: Obama smiles as he chats with the Queen ahead of the photo for world leaders at Chateau de Benouville on Friday

Keeping their distance: Obama, second right, walks with Queen Elizabeth as Putin, left, walks with Hollande as they head towards the state leaders' lunch

All eyes were on Putin and
Obama, were placed just
seats from each other - with only Queen Elizabeth, French President
Hollande and Queen Margrethe of Denmark separating them.

The pair hey refused to acknowledge each other at the group photograph before keeping their distance as they headed to lunch at the Chateau de Benouville.

'Obama and Putin were at times close enough to touch but did not speak with or acknowledge each other in the pool's presence,' the White House pool reporter noted. Obama 'could have tapped him on the shoulder if he wanted to but instead focused his attention elsewhere as if not noticing who was there'.

But as speculation mounted over whether or not they would talk, the White House confirmed that the pair did indeed speak 'for 10 to 15 minutes' once they went inside for the luncheon.

'President Obama and President Putin did speak with each other on the margins of the leaders lunch,' his assistant Ben Rhodes said. 'It was an informal conversation - not a formal bilateral meeting.'

Address: Obama and Putin were placed just seats apart at the lunch. White House officials confirmed that the two men did speak for 10 to 15 minutes

Meeting: Putin is pictured in his first meeting with Ukraine president-elect Petro Poroshenko since the election. They chatted with Germany's Angela Merkel

Greetings: Children escort President Obama after he arrives to attend the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings, on Sword beach, on Friday afternoon

Paying tribute: After the lunch, the world leaders attended an international D-Day commemoration ceremony on the beach of Ouistreham in Normandy

Arrival: Queen Elizabeth II shakes hands with D-Day veterans alongside French President Francois Hollande during the Ouistreham International Ceremony

Chums: Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall laugh with Obama during the ceremony at Sword Beach in Ouistreham on Friday afternoon

Having a laugh: The two men share a joke ahead of a commemoration speech by France's President Hollande on Friday afternoon

Comber: Ukraine's President-elect Petro Proshenko walks past Putin at the ceremony in Ouistreham, as Putin fails to look at him

Side-by-side: Obama and Putin are shown on a
split screen as they take their seats at celebrations for the 70th
anniversary of D-Day at Sword Beach in Ouistreham

Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the
leaders had exchanged views about the situation in Ukraine and the
crisis in the east, where Ukrainian forces have been fighting with
pro-Russian insurgents.

'Putin and Obama spoke for the need to end violence and fighting as quickly as possible,' he said.

Before
they headed into the luncheon, Ukraine's incoming president was
pictured speaking briefly with Putin - their first meeting since the
election.

President-elect
Petro Poroshenko, Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel lingered a
while and chatted in a threesome. Reporters observing the encounter
couldn't hear any of the animated minute-long conversation. No plans
have been announced for a longer, formal meeting between the men.

The
French, British and German leaders had all scheduled individual
meetings with Putin - who did not attend the Omaha Beach ceremony - but
Obama had not.

Ceremony: Artists perform during the international D-Day commemoration ceremony, including fireworks, in Ouistreham as the world leaders look on

Stunning: Alpha jets, part of the Patrouille Acrobatique de France, leave trails of smoke in the colors of the French flag during the event

Spectacle: The French Acrobatic Patrol Alpha Jets perform a flypast over Sword Beach to mark the end of the Commemoration of the anniversary

Spectacle: Artists perform on the beach of Ouistreham in front of an image of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin

Celebration: French military personnel march during a service of remembrance in Ouistreham, Normandy on Friday as leaders look on

Following the lunch, they moved onto celebrations at Sword Beach in Ouistreham - where Putin refused to make eye contact with Poroshenko as he passed.'I want, in the name of France, to salute those who are present here today,' President Hollande said. 'Thank you. Thank you for being there in 1944. Thank you for still being here... You will always be here, your spirit, on these beaches.'

Obama's
speech at the morning ceremony came after he met privately with seven
of the dwindling number of surviving troops who fought Adolf Hitler's
Third Reich, along with seven members of the military who have served
since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

On his way: An Osprey accompanies Marine One carrying Obama over the beaches of Normandy to the ceremony in Colleville-sur-Mer

Hand on heart: A former US soldier raises his hand during the French and American national anthems alongside the Presidents from each country

Sharing a joke: Obama and French President Francois Hollande sit on stage with veterans at Normandy American Cemetery at Omaha Beach

Proud: A World War II US veteran waves at his family in the audience during the ceremony marking the 70th anniversary in Colleville

Obama shakes hands with a WWII veteran next to President Hollande after making his speech

Joy: A World War Two veteran, second right, meets Obama as they participate in the 70th French-American commemoration D-Day ceremony

Remembered: Floral tributes and wooden crosses bedeck the central epitaph in Bayeux Cemetery following a service of remembrance on Friday

Among
them was Sgt. 1st Class Cory Remsburg, an Army Ranger who served 10
deployments and was severely wounded by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.
Obama recognized Remsburg at the emotional high-point of his State of
the Union address earlier this year, after first meeting him five years
ago at the Normandy commemoration.

Obama held Remsberg up Friday as an
example of the sacrifice of his generation, telling the D-Day veterans,
‘Your legacy is in good hands.’

‘For
in a time when it has never been more tempting to pursue narrow
self-interest, to slough off common endeavor, this generation of
Americans, a new generation, our men and women of war, have chosen to do
their part as well,’ Obama said. He also recognized the commitment that
women and immigrants are making in today's more diverse military.

The
president mentioned that his grandfather served in Patton's Army and
his grandmother was among the many women who went to work supporting the
war effort back home, in her case on a B-29 bomber assembly line.
Obama's grandparents helped raise him, and he broke from his prepared
text to observe wistfully that there was never a time he missed his
grandfather more or would have loved to be with him.

French President Francois Hollande (left) shakes hands with President Barack Obama during the commemoration ceremony

Reunion: Obama and Hollande smile next to World War II veteran Kenneth 'Rock' Merritt as they arrive for the official lunch at Benouville Castle

Barack Obama and French President Francois Hollande arrive at the Normandy American Cemetery

US President Barack Obama (R) and French President Francois Hollande (L) stand during a joint French-US D-Day commemoration ceremony at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-mer

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, arrive to attend a bi-national France-UK D-Day commemoration ceremony at the British War Cemetery of Bayeux

Britain's Queen Elizabeth pays her respects after laying a wreath during the French-British ceremony at the British War cemetery in Bayeux

US presidential helicopter Marine One transporting US President Barack Obama arrives at a joint French-US D-Day commemoration ceremony at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-mer, Normandy

Poignant: An American flag is placed in the sand of Omaha Beach, western France

Key victory: Fireworks are launched to mark the moment that Pegasus Bridge was captured by British troops on June 6

Emotional: A reenactment enthusiast, dressed in the uniforms that would have been worn by American soldiers, wipes a tear from his eye as he remembers those lost on the beaches

The fly-past before the Service of Remembrance at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery, Bayeux

‘Someday, future generations, whether
seventy or seven hundred years hence, will gather at places like this to
honor them,’ Obama said. ‘And to say that these were generations of men
and women who proved once again that the United States of America is
and will remain the greatest force for freedom the world has ever
known.’

The day of international commemorations started just after midnight
with a vigil at the Pegasus Bridge, marking the first assault of the
D-Day invasion when Allied soldiers landed in the dead of night exactly
70 years ago.

At 12.16am a team of six Horsa gliders carrying 181 men from the Glider
Pilot Regiment and the 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire
Light Infantry, landed silently to capture the strategically-vital
bridge and another nearby, paving the way for soldiers landing on the
Normandy beaches to move inland and reinforce their airborne colleagues.

To mark that moment fireworks burst into the night sky as hundreds watched on.

Attending
the midnight vigil at Pegasus Bridge, Britain's prime minister David
Cameron said: 'People of my generation just find it hard to believe what
people of my grandfather's generation did to ensure we can all live in
freedom.

'When you hear the stories of the people coming back
again in their nineties of what they did and how brave they were, how
many people they lost, it just is incredibly humbling.'

As
the sun rose over the gusty Omaha Beach, flags flew at half-staff.
A U.S. military band played Taps, while D-Day veterans from the 29th
Infantry Division and serving soldiers stood at attention at exactly
6.30am, the moment on June 6, 1944, when Allied troops first waded
ashore.

Hundreds of Normandy residents and other onlookers applauded the veterans, then began forming a human chain on the beach.

The
D-Day invasion was a turning point in World War II, cracking Hitler's
western front as the Soviet troops made advances in the east. D-Day
launched the weekslong Battle of Normandy and brought the Allies to
Paris, which they liberated from Nazi occupation.

Today's conflicts are also on many minds at the D-Day commemorations.

Jeffrey
McIllwain, professor at the San Diego State University school of public
affairs, will lay a wreath on behalf of educators who have lost
students to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - himself included.

He,
like many veterans and world leaders here, is concerned about keeping
the memory of D-Day alive as the number of survivors dwindles. He brought 12 students to Normandy for a course on the lessons of D-Day.

‘I make them promise to bring their grandchildren to serve as a bridge to the next generation,’ he said.

For
many visitors, the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, with its
9,387 white marble tombstones on a bluff overlooking Omaha Beach, is the emotional centerpiece
of pilgrimages to honor the tens of thousands of men killed on D-Day
and the months of fighting afterward.

In the crowd: Dressed in their hats and military regalia, the former soldiers join in a conversation at the joint French-US D-Day commemoration ceremony where they listened to President Barack Obama

Solemn occasion: French Prime Minister Manuel Valls leaves Bayeux Cathedral with Prince Charles, Prince of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall after a Service of Remembrance in Ranville

People look at military vehicles set up on the beach in Arromanches prior to a joint French-Dutch D-Day commemoration ceremony

Visitors walk aboard ships set up on the beach in Arromanches

Tears for fallen comrades: US World War II
Veterans wipe tears as they attend a ceremony at the signal monument in
Sainte-Mere-Eglise on June 5, 2014, on the eve of the 70th anniversary
of the World War II Allied landings in Normandy

Fly-by: US WW II veterans look at a C130 Air Force plane, which flies above Sainte-Mere-Eglise, during a ceremony in homage to paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st Airborne, in Sainte-Mere-Eglise, France

Stand and remember: U.S WW II veterans of 82nd and 101st airborne division, salute as the national anthems are played during a ceremony in homage at paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st airborne division, in Sainte-Mere-Eglise, France

US World War II veteran Frederick Carrier who
took part in the DDay landing, read the names of dead soldiers on a
monument before a ceremony in Utah Beach in Utah Beach at Saint Marie
du Mont, northern France, on June 5, 2014, marking the 70th anniversary
of the World War II Allied landings in Normandy

US soldiers of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Division, inhabitants and locals authorities, attend a ceremony in homage at paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Division, in Sainte-Mere-Eglise, France, as world leaders and veterans prepare to mark the 70th anniversary of the invasion this week in Normandy

Safe from the elements: US World War II
veterans bundled up in blankets take part in a ceremony in Utah Beach
at Saint Marie du Mont, take part in a ceremony part in Utah Beach at
Saint-Marie-du-Mont, northwestern France, on June 5, 2014

Head held high: WWII veterans salute as they attend a remembrance ceremony for US paratroopers who lost their lives on the night of 05 June 1944 parachuting over the swamplands of Sainte-Mere-Eglise in Normandy

A WWII veteran holds his cap over his heart as
he attends a remembrance ceremony for US paratroopers who lost their
lives on the night of 05 June 1944

Nations: A European Union, United States and Norwegian flag flutter in the foreground as a Lancaster Bomber speeds past during the RAF memorial routine

Reminder: A US C-130 aircraft flies past the church tower bearing a mannequin of US 82nd Airborne paratrooper, John Steele (immortalized in the Hollywood movie The Longest Day), in Sainte-Mere-Eglise in Normandy, France, 05 June 2014

Current and past: Gen. Philip M. Breedlove
Commander, U.S. Air Forces in Europe, (right), shakes hands with U.S WW
II veteran 90-year-old Curtis Philipps from Georgia, who landed in
Picauville on June 6, 1944, during a ceremony in homage to the English
and American airborne and pilots, at the Memorial of airborne and US
Air Force, in Picauville, France

Indeed, on the eve of the anniversary, the spotlight was firmly on those who risked their lives to liberate Europe from Nazism, most of whom are now in their 90s.

Emotional scenes were witnessed on Thursday as US World War II Veterans attended a ceremony at the signal monument in Sainte-Mere-Eglise in Normandy to mark the assault of the 82nd and 101st airborne division's - who parachuted in behind enemy lines prior to the launch of the D-Day armada.

No less moving was a reading of the names of the dead soldiers at Utah Beach at Saint Marie du Mont - where more than 3,000 US soldiers, airmen and naval personnel died storming the German positions.

One of those men, D-Day veteran Clair Martin, 93, said he has been back three times in the last 70-years - 'four if you count the time they were shooting at me.'

'AT LEAST THIS TIME THERE WAS NO ONE SHOOTING AT ME': HERO PARATROOPER, 93, JUMPS OVER NORMANDY FOR HIS FALLEN COMRADES

Seventy years ago, Jim 'Pee Wee' Martin of the legendary 101st Airborne Division parachuted into France, behind enemy lines, hours before the D-Day armada launched across the English Channel.

Today, at the age of 93, the Ohio World War Two hero jumped out of a plane again to mark the anniversary of the June 6, 1944, landings as a mark of respect to his comrades of the Greatest Generation who could not be there.

Hero: US war veteran Jim 'Pee Wee' Martin (center), 93, looks on after landing with a parachute on June 5, 2014 over Carentan, where he landed 70 years ago, when he was a paratrooper

This time however, despite the veterans advanced age, the jump was a whole lot easier.

Martin made his jump as ceremonies to commemorate the 70th anniversary of D-Day draw thousands of visitors to the cemeteries, beaches and stone-walled villages of Normandy this week.

For his part to mark his successful landing after his tandem jump, Martin said he felt 'asolutely wonderful'.

He revealed he was jumping now because he may be the last man from his unit of the 101st Airborne Division to ever do it again.

Martin recalled that on the first night as Allied troops parachuted in for the D-Day invasion, local people thanked them for coming even as their houses were burning, and he has since received a warm reception in France.

'Some people will come up to you and cry and say, 'I was a little girl back then and I remember what happened, and you gave us our freedom,'" Martin said.

He also recalled the terror he felt as he sat in his Dakota aircraft preparing to be parachuted into the drop zone behind the beaches of Utah - where thousands of Americans lost their lives on D-Day.

'Everybody was scared all the time, and if they tell you anything differently they are full of crap,' the former paratrooper recalled to CNN.

'But you just do what you had to do regardless of it. That's the difference.'

Martin, who was a private in the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, was among the first Americans in combat in Europe. After Normandy, where his unit fought to capture key bridges, he parachuted into Holland in 'Operation Market Garden' and fought at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge.

As a defense industry worker, he had a deferment from military service, but Martin said he saw that France and Britain could not win the war in Europe on their own and that men with families were joining the service and being drafted. He enlisted at age 21 and was later awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star.

Recreation in tandem: Heroic war veteran Jim 'Pee Wee' Martin 93, prepares to land. The D-Day ceremonies on June 6 this year mark the 70th anniversary since the launch of 'Operation Overlord' which helped liberated Europe from Hitler

Seventy years gone by: Jim 'Pee Wee' Martin was 23-years-old and one of the older members of the 101st Airborne Division who landed in Normandy just prior to the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944

'The one thing I want to emphasize is that we were not heroes. A hero is someone not expected to do something,' he said. He told CNN, 'We just did what we trained to do.'

'When you volunteer, and you get trained for it and get paid for it, you may be brave as hell but you are not a hero.'

Another visiting dignitary parachuted into the fields of Normandy today - General George S. Patton's granddaughter, Helen Patton.

She is in France to host two concerts for the world leaders in attendance as a way to get young people to remember the battle.

'With the Patton concerts, we want to find a new way to commemorate, something different than the same old-same old with military drums,' said the granddaughter of General George S. Patton.

The San Diego, California resident landed on D-Day with the 29th Infantry Division and said he kept fighting until he reached the Elbe River in Germany the following April. 'I praise God I made it and that we've never had another World War,' he said.

Ceremonies large and small are taking place across Normandy, ahead of an international summit on Friday in Ouistreham, a small port that was the site of a strategic battle on D-Day. Fireworks lit up the sky Thursday night to mark the anniversary.

French President Francois Hollande's decision to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to participate in the official ceremony despite his exclusion from the G-7 summit in Brussels is being seen by some as justified recognition of the Soviet Union's great sacrifice in defeating Hitler, but by others as a distraction given the West's dispute with Russia over Ukraine.

Russian paratroopers joined the commemorations late Thursday, jumping down onto the town of Arromanches waving a Russian flag, in a reminder of their role fighting the Nazis on the eastern front in World War II and the millions of lives the Soviet Union lost. The Russians' participation comes despite tensions between the U.S. and Russia over Ukraine.

Release: Hundreds of American paratroopers drop into Normandy, France on or near D-Day, June 6, 1944. Their landing, part of an all-out Allied assault from air and sea, was the beginning of a sweep through Europe that would finally defeat Nazi Germany

U.S. Army paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division drive a captured German Kubelwagen on D-Day at the junction of Rue Holgate and RN13 in Carentan, France, June 6, 1944 in this handout photo provided by the US National Archives

Transport: A Dakota airplane with it's D Day marking at an unnamed British airfield before dropping members of the British Army's 16 Air Assault Brigade over Ranville, Normandy, France, 05 June 2014 - this aircraft would have been similar to the one that dropped 'Pee 'Wee'

Arrival: U.S. President Barack Obama receives a
salute from an honor guard upon his arrival in Paris June 5, 2014. Obama
will dine with French President Hollande in Paris and spend Friday in
Normandy on the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings

The Beast: The motorcade of US President Barack Obama arrives at the restaurant "Le Chiberta" in Paris on June 5, 2014. US President Barack Obama arrived in France to mark the 70th anniversary of D-Day

This year's anniversary has the added poignancy of being the last time that many of those who took part in the battle will be able to make the long journey back to Normandy and tell their stories.

'Three minutes after landing a mortar blew up next to me and I lost my K-rations,' said Curtis Outen, 92, of Pageland, South Carolina. Outen, making his first return to Normandy since the war, related the loss of his military-issued meal packet as though it happened yesterday. 'Then I cut my arm in the barbed wire entanglements. After that I was all right.'

By midmorning on Thursday hundreds of visitors walked among the cemetery's long rows of white crosses and stars of David. Schoolchildren and retirees, soldiers in uniform and veterans in wheelchairs quietly move from grave to grave, pausing to read the brief inscriptions that can only give hints of the lives laid to rest there:

Nearby, retired lawyer Paul Clifford of Boston kneeled silently and placed a bouquet of red, white and blue flowers at the grave of Walter J. Gunther Jr., a paratrooper of the 101st Airborne Division killed on D-Day.

Clifford said the grave belonged to a relative of his best friend in Boston. The friend has never been able to travel to Normandy to visit the grave, so Clifford has come each June for the last 10 years to pay respect.

'He was my best friend's uncle. When he came down his parachute got caught in the branches. He never made it out of the trees,' said Clifford.

Ernest 'Ernie' Stringer, spoke of his terror as he piled out of a low-flying military aircraft in pitch darkness.

'It
was dark and the planes were coming in very low. We were out and on the
ground very quickly,' Stringer, who was only 19 on the day, told AFP.
'I was dead scared. You don't know what's going to happen to you. You
are jumping blind. You don't know where the Germans are. As it happened
we were virtually surrounded but we didn't know that. And they didn't
know we were there either!'

Allies: An American and a French flag are seen in the foreground as a C-47 military transport airplane flies over Utah Beach in Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, northern France

British Royal Navy shows Royal and Dutch Marines participating in an amphibious demonstration from HMS Bulwark and Dutch ship Johan de Witt at Southsea beach during the commemorations for the 70th anniversary of D-Day in Portsmouth, Britain, 05 June 2014

British naval vessel HMS Bulwark fires a gun salute during a beach landing demonstration during D-Day commemorations in Portsmouth in southern England on June 5, 2014

'WHY THE HELL I DIDN'T DIE THERE I CAN'T SAY': AMERICAN D-DAY VETERAN, 92, REMEMBERS THE HORRORS OF OMAHA BEACH

By Paul Harris

John Trippon, 92, returned to Omaha beach - the spot where 70-years before he watched the bloodiest battle of D-Day unfold in front of him.

Then he was a fit, young soldier, one of 40 dropped 90 yards offshore as German machine gun and artillery fire pinned down and tore through the ranks ahead of them.

Survivor: John Trippon pictured on Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, 70 years after he landed there during D-Day

What no-one realized was that shell-fire had blown a massive, water-filled pit into the sea bed, and the troops were jumping into it. ‘All my equipment weighed me down and I sunk to the bottom of a 20ft crater,’ he said.

He had to shed his kit, ammunition, grenades and weapons and swim to shore. ‘All the time the German machine-gunner was mowing people down.

'Why the hell I didn’t die there I can’t say. I guess he was too busy killing other guys.

'There were so many bodies lying in the water they stopped bringing any more troops ashore because it was freaking people out to see all these guys dead. They had to bring bulldozers in to push the bodies into a trench so they couldn’t be seen.

We ran across the beach as fast as we could and I picked up a gun on the way. We got up against the cliff face and it was so steep the Germans couldn’t shoot down at us. We could only move after the ships used their guns to take out the pill-boxes.’

Mr Trippon, a grandfather and great grandfather from Sun City, Arizona, still bears scars on his legs from his role as a ‘human bridge’ assigned to lie across concertina barbed wire to allow his comrades to run over him in safety.

At one stage – starving hungry – they ran into a field to collect dismembered limbs of cows they assumed had just been killed by shellfire. Only later, when infantrymen were blown up advancing through it, did they discover it was a minefield.

On Wednesday, Mr Trippon, making one final pilgrimage to Normandy to visit the graves of fallen friends, was staying with his family as guests of honor in a chateau overlooking Omaha Beach. Seventy years ago, he and his comrades had scaled the cliff to liberate it.

Many of those who jumped before him were not so lucky. The man ahead of Stringer hit a wall and broke his arm. Several died on impact, not having time to open their chutes as the planes were flying so low.

More than 156,000 troops waded or parachuted onto French soil on June 6, 1944. Nearly 4,500 would be dead by the end of the day.

With politicians preparing to take center stage on Friday, the British Royal family took to the fields of Normandy to offer their respects.

As colonel-in-chief of the parachute regiment, Britain's Prince Charles led the tributes to men like Stringer who took part in the first wave, when thousands of Allied troops flew or parachuted in during the early hours of June 6, 1944, catching the German army by surprise.

Colourful: The Red Arrows display team perform over Southsea Common at the end of a commemoration service

Formation: Their flight paths drew out a heart along with a number of other shapes as a crowd watched from the ground

Curve: The planes perform an arch directly in front of the sun, creating a spectacular image

Charge: British Marines and their Dutch counterparts demonstrate a beach assault near the common

Wearing a field marshal's uniform, the heir to the British throne chatted at length to veterans, many of whom were confined to wheelchairs, along with his wife Camilla, who was wearing a grey-blue overcoat.

He waved to crowds who applauded as he crossed Pegasus Bridge under a clear blue sky and posed for a group photo with veterans.

Charles and Camilla then hopped into a motor gunboat, one of the lead boats on the approach to Swords Beach on the historic day seven decades ago.

'Did you jump here?' the prince asked paratrooper Raymond Shuck. 'And in the right place?' he quipped, in reference to the fact that several parachutists landed in completely the wrong place in the darkness and confusion of the assault.

Charles later oversaw a parachute drop involving British, French, US and Canadian forces including Jock Hutton, a Scottish veteran who at the age of 89 made a tandem jump onto the same spot he landed in 1944.

Wearing a red jumpsuit, Hutton
touched down lightly on the grass just in front of the waiting prince,
dusted himself down briskly and removed his helmet.

'I was hoping there'd be some Calvados,' he quipped on arrival. 'At my age, life tends to get a wee bit boring. So you've got to grab at any chance at excitement.'

On
Friday, Queen Elizabeth received a warm welcome from hundreds of
well-wishers as she alighted at the Gare du Nord in Paris in a
cream-white coat and matching hat.

Sharing a joke: Veteran Raymond Shuck, who was a paratrooper on D-Day chats with Prince Charles, Prince of Wales as he meets veterans near Pegasus Bridge

Striking:
The Queen and President Hollande were driven to the Arc de Triomphe in a
maroon Rolls Royce ahead of a wreath laying ceremony

She then traveled to Paris for a ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe alongside the French premier.

The British head of state and her French counterpart arrived together in a maroon Rolls Royce and were greeted by a sea of Union flags which lined the Champs-Élysées, as well as a military guard of honour.

Together, they then laid a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which contains the remains of an anonymous fighter who died during the First World War.